A Woman's View

Find peace of mind despite the scarcity of hope

Are you troubled, convinced the world is a mess and there is no hope, no beauty?

Feast your eyes on God's handiwork one recent spring in a California canyon somewhere near San Luis Obispo. 

(Sorry, photographer unknown.)

I've loved this photo since I first saw it. I can't imagine a better visual for what Jesus said in Luke 12, starting at verse 22.

"Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes . . . Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."

Maybe you suffer from the same malady as I. Worry. Oh, I can call it something nicer, but really, it's worry.

When I look at wildflowers, as in this photo, I feel the tightness in my shoulders ease up. The One who splashes these remote hills with extravagant beauty tenderly cares for all His creation.

That includes you and me.

Whatever we are dealing with today, we are not alone. The weight of the world does not rest on our shoulders. Count on it. His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:21-16)

Every day mercies and blessings surround us. 

Are we looking for them?

Here's to having eyes to see,

Lenore

What if you could start over with a clean slate?

Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

That's what this dark day is all about and why Christians call this, "GOOD Friday."

Maybe it's worth a recap.

*  Jesus was not captured by those soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane. He went willingly. It was all part of God's plan.

*  This God-man came to earth to set things right between us human beings and God.

*  That relationship got messed up in the Garden of Eden, when Eve turned from God and listened to the Serpent. She chose to listen to Satan, the voice of pride and evil, rather than to God. When Adam listened to Eve, he, too, turned from the Father who loved him and closed his ears to God's ways (Genesis 3:1-7.)

*  From that time on, the perfect, loving relationship between God the Father and human beings was destroyed.

*  If we tried to be "good enough for God," we would need to be holy, because he is holy (Leviticus 19:2.) That means to be utterly good, in thought, word and deed. Perfect. Every day in every way, all the time. Anything else is called "sin."

*  Human beings, male or female, could not--and cannot--achieve that, no matter how hard we try. On our own we are without hope.

*  Even though we don't have it in us to be perfect, God never stopped loving us. That's why He came to earth in the form of a human baby, born to Mary and Joseph, in Bethlehem.

*  Jesus, the God-man, allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross. For you, for me.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.               --John 3:16

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.                           2 Corinthians 5:21

In [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.                          --Ephesians 1:7

The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.                    1 John 1:7

At our church and many others, Good Friday services are a bit different. As we enter the church,  overhead lights on dim, we stop to jot down whatever regrets, pains, wrong  actions, sadnesses and broken relationships we want to be leave at the cross. We write as much or as little as we like, no names, because, after all, God already knows. 

Then alone or as families we walk to the bare, rough-hewn wooden cross that stands at the front of the churrch, along with a pail full of big nails and some hammers. Each of us nails our slips of paper to the cross to symbolize what we already know, that Jesus died to pay the price for all our sins, past, present and future.

It's a powerful way of reminding ourselves that Jesus died for my sins, not just the sins of everyone else. That's what makes Good Friday good.

He died for your sins, too. Will you let Him set you free?

Lovingly,

Lenore

 

Thanks-living any day of the year, even in tough times

Another Thanksgiving Day is upon us. I love it that every time we say the name 
of this holiday it reminds us of what it's all about: giving thanks. 

Maybe some of us don't feel much like giving thanks right now. Maybe we're slogging through a rough patch that shows no sign of smoothing out. Every day starts and ends with one thought, one prayer: Please let this be over--soon!

Even if things are good in our lives, probably most of us can remember a time when we floundered and fretted. When that's where we are and life feels empty, how are we supposed to feel thankful?

All I can do is tell you what helps me when I find myself walking that long, lonesome road.

That's when I hang on to what I know by faith and by experience: God is still God and His Word is still true. Even if I feel abandoned, the Bible over and over says He loves me. What's more, He doesn't love me because of my shining faith and my perfect life, only because I believe in Jesus.   

   [Jesus said] "No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me     and have believed that I came from God."              --John 21:27                                                                                                                                                                                       -Then I search out Bible verses that reassure me. Sometimes I write them down and keep them with me so I can repeat them over and over to myself. Like this one:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger of sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.                                 --Romans 8:35, 37-39

When I feel weak and overwhelmed this verse reminds me I can draw on power beyond my own:

[The Apostle Paul says] Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."                                                                               --2 Corinthians 12:9

When we're feeling down it's easy to lose hope for the future, isn't it? That's when I go to this promise:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."                                                                                 --Jeremiah 29:11 

As for what lies beyond, here's the greatest promise of all:

[Jesus says] "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son in to the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."    --John 3:16-17

So, it's Thanksgiving. Time for officially  thanking the Giver. I forget sometimes that "ordinary" things are a blessing. Like being able to breathe in and out. Like eyes that work. Like the ability to call up happy memories. It took me way too long but I've learned life feels, um, happier when I remember to thank Him every day.

Each of the Bible verses I've quoted is underlined in my Bible. It took me way too many years before I picked up a pen and started underlining, but it has blessed my life. Countless times I've opened my old NIV and gone from one underlined verse to the next. Every time I feel my spirits lift.

Be wiser than I was and start now. Find Bible verses that speak to your heart and your spirit and mark them. Think through how they apply to you and your life. Keep them handy to pass on to someone who's hurting.

By the way, any time you feel alone, think of this verse and the word picture it paints. This is how God feels about you and me:

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.                                    --Zephaniah 3:17    

Imagine! Now there's a reason to give thanks . . .

Here's to a JOY-filled Thanks-giving day, every day,

Lenore

P. S.  I'm thankful for you, my friend, for taking time to read my words.

 

More wisdom--and a challenge--from a one-time Nazi youth leader

Let's pick up Hansi's story where we left off last time. Maria Anne Hirschmann, a one-time Nazi youth leader, kept us glued to our seats recently when she spoke to an area gathering of Christians.

"When I was chosen for the Nazi Youth Leaders' Camp at age twelve, I was
honored. They told us we would help change the world," she said. "Once I believed in Jesus, now I believed in Adolph Hitler. Hitler became my God and I never lost faith, even when we had no food. "Finally the end came, when I was nineteen. The Allies declared victory and Russia took over Czechoslovakia. They sent us to a Communist Labor Camp. The hardships of war seemed easy compared to the rapes, beatings and  deprivations there. I saw other women raped," Hansi says, "but nobody touched me. They wouldn't dare! Remember, I was a trained killer and I vowed I would never take that from anyone.

"After awhile we knew we could not survive that cruel place much longer, so a group of us decided to risk breaking out. Even if we died, it could not be worse than what we had. We walked away and somehow no one came after us. We walked for weeks, mostly under cover of darkness. We drank from streams and ate tree roots and wild mushrooms to stay alive. Always we headed towards the West. Someone told us we had to go through 'No Man's Land' to get to the Americans. That cleared area was a kilometer or more across, no trees, no place to hide, with searchlights and Russian soldiers waiting to shoot anyone who tried to cross.

"Once we got to that place," Hansi said, "we huddled among the trees and brush at the edge, waiting in the eerie quiet. Then I heard a child crying pitifully. She was separated from her mother and sister. I hushed the child and took her back, telling my friend we could not leave her behind. We were so tired we could barely walk, but we made ourselves run, packs on our backs, dragging the three-year-old between us. All the time we knew Russian soldiers watched, ready to shoot us. They never did.

"We saw no farms nor houses, no light in that black night. So we trudged on. We had to brave an icy river, with water up to the child's chin. Somehow we made it. Then we straggled onto the bank, dripping wet and shivering. The child would die unless we found shelter, so we could not stop," Hansi says. "We were too weak to carry her, so we sort of pulled her between us. Then we saw light from a window in a low, white building ahead. Would it be Russians again? Americans? 

"I crept up to the door and knocked. My worst nightmare answered. An American. He stood there filling the doorway, looking just like pictures Camp commanders showed us of the enemy. I knew American soldiers might smile, like this one, but they were worse than the Russians. I was never so scared in my life, but I said to myself they would never touch me!

"Holding up the little girl, I said, 'Please take this child, or she will die. We nothing else. Take her and we will be on our way.'

"I spoke no English, he spoke no German," Hansi said, "but somehow he understood. He picked her up and carried her into the big room, which was all light and warm. Someone brought blankets and a cot and someone else brought food. My girlfriend and I tried to slip out while they were busy, but they stopped us. The big American said, 'Listen, me American. Me no Russian.'

"He pointed to himself and said, 'Me good man,' and smiled again. Then he gestured to a room with two cots and motioned my girlfriend and me toward it. We kind of fell down on those two cots and covered up with the blankets. The soldier left and shut the door after him. Next day someone knocked and woke us. It was another smiling soldier carrying a tray loaded with food. So much food! We had not had a full meal for so long we forgot how good food could taste.

"You couldn't have argued me out of my Nazi beliefs with words," she said. "But we couldn't believe the kindness of these Americans. Their kindness and love witnessed more powerfully to me than any words. I went out very confused and stayed that way a long time. What was truth? How could I find it?

"Then I located my foster mother. She told me she never stopped praying for me, not one day, even though she did not know whether I was dead or alive. She talked again of Jesus, how He kept me safe. Slowly I began to remember what I believed as a child.

"My friends, I want you to know that my Jesus will never leave the ones you pray for," Hansi says. "What you teach your children, especially the first six years, they will not forget. They may want to. They may push it aside. But they cannot drive it out of their hearts and minds.

"I came to understand that Truth is a person and that person is Jesus. He loved me even while I was a sinner, while I was an enemy of God. Because of Jesus, God loved me. The Bible says if you sincerely seek Jesus with all your heart, you will find Him. My mother could not do it for me. God has no grandchildren. I had to seek him on my own, with my whole heart.

"From that time on I wanted desperately to come to America. At last in 1955 my family and I came to this country. Freedom was hard to understand. I asked people what I could do and they would say, 'Do your own thing.' Well, I had no idea what 'my thing' might be. All my life people told me what I could do and what I should say. I didn't know how to think for myself. When I asked where would we be permitted to move, they told us, 'Anywhere you want to go.' When I asked what school or what work we would be allowed, they told us, 'Anything you want. You decide. It's a free country, so just work hard, because it's up to you.' I couldn't believe it!

"I fell in love with America and with American freedom. When I became a citizen and pledged allegiance, I knew what it means to be an American. I know that our freedom rests on the Judeo-Christian laws and system of Government we love.

"Our freedom as Americans depends on each of us having the inner control that comes from living under God," Hansi says. "Without that, we cannot function as a free country.

"God gives freedom, but we always have the choice. Long ago Governor Wm. Penn said, 'You have a choice. You may be governed by God or ruled by tyrants.'

"We must teach the children that freedom is a choice and we are responsible for that choice. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, teachers, we are training the citizens of tomorrow. Read the Old Testament and you will see, Israel fell away when the older generation failed to teach the young. The next generation did not follow God.

"My fellow Americans," Hansi said, her eyes glowing, "do not take the freedom we have in this country for granted. We could lose it in no time. I know that's true, because I saw it happen. But there is hope! What the Lord told Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 is still true.

'If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.'

"That is our calling, my friends, to humble ourselves and pray. To become intercessors for this nation and our leaders. Instead of just making a living, let us make a life! So we start where we are. We pray for our neighbors and ask God to give us opportunities and open doors for us.

"We say we are just one person," Hansi said. "Well, Martin Luther was just one person, too, but look how God used him. The Lord gives you and me a commission: To be who we say we are. To live so that nobody ever has to ask, 'Are you a Christian?'

"My friends, I say again, get involved in your communities. Know what's going on and what your officials and candidates stand for. Treat voting like the privilege it is and vote in every election! If we treat our precious freedom carelessly, we stand in real danger of losing it.

Then this vibrant 84-year old woman said, her eyes twinkling, "By the way, the word 'retire' is not found anywhere in the Bible. God lets us live and gives us strength because He has work for us to do that no one else can do.

"Never forget that God works through people, people like you and me, to change the world."  

Question for you: What will you remember from Hansi's story? How does she speak to your heart?

Here's to being willing to be used,

Lenore

(Note: Both this post and the previous post are based on extensive notes I took when Hansi spoke. I also went to YouTube--and you can, too. Once you're on YouTube, write Maria Anne Hirschmann. There are five segments. You can Google Hansi's website, too:  www.hansiministries.org)

Does Prayer Work?

A lot of people wonder about that. What one calls an answer to prayer another calls "luck" or "coincidence."

Some people pray only for Big Things. Others say they pray about everything from finding a job to finding a parking place at the mall.  
 
The other day a friend told of not being able to find her Kindle. "I took my house apart," she said. "Went through every pocket, turned my purse inside out, looked absolutely everywhere, but I absolutely could not find it. I was beside myself. The friend who gave it to me is fighting cancer and I felt just terrible.

"I finally remembered to ask God to help me and about two minutes later I realized I hadn't checked the wooden box on my counter where I keep my appointment book and a bunch of other small things. So I checked and there it was.

"One thing I've learned over the years. God does answer prayer. Not always what we ask for, but always what we need--and sometimes we have to wait to see that."

Another friend who lives alone nodded her head. Then she told about getting out the ladder to change a light bulb in her bedroom light fixture. She tried and tried, but the old bulb wouldn't budge. "I came down the ladder and was about ready to give up," she said. "Finally I just said, 'Lord, I don't know what to do. I don't want to have to call someone to come in. Please, Lord, help me!'

"I decided to give it one more try. A couple of twists and that bulb came right out. I know it was just a light bulb, but I really needed to know God is watching over me."

Everyone standing around chimed in, each one with a story to tell, a story of God's faithfulness and provision. We all attend different churches, but we're all Christians. Each of us walked away from the conversation smiling, encouraged and reinforced in our faith and by sharing our stories. That's what friends are for.

You've probably heard people say, "Prayer really works."

I think that's not quite accurate. I think God really works.

He can bless us with or without our prayers. But when we pray and things seem to "work out," then we know it's God answering our prayers and we give Him thanks and praise. If we didn't pray, we wouldn't look for His hand in our lives and we wouldn't thank Him.

As for whether to pray only for Big Things or for everything, I vote for the latter. I think maybe that's what the Apostle Paul meant in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

What do you think? I'd love to know your thoughts. 

Blessings,

Lenore

 

 

What can we hold onto in the midst of our national gloom?

You feel it everywhere, the down mood of our fellow citizens. For proof we can read the polls or the daily newspaper. Or we can ask our neighbor. Or maybe just look in the mirror.

And yet . . . and yet, we live in a nation blessed from its beginning. Our founding fathers had their own reasons for being depressed. Yet they came up with this unforgettable  first paragraph in our Declaration of Independence. 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

They ended their Declaration with this statement that reveals what the base on which they rested.

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we  mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes,    and our sacred Honor."

A number of them did pay with their lives and their fortunes, or family members did. As for their "sacred honor," many people around them called them traitors. John Hancock signed the Declaration first, boldly scrawling his signature. He said, "Well, I guess the King should be able to read that!"

(Ever since people have said, "Put your 'John Hancock' here.")

Arguments continue to rage over whether our nation's founders believed in God. Decide for yourself:

  "We recognize no sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus."      - John Adams and John Hancock    

"God who gave us life gave us liberty."    -Thomas Jefferson

"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."    -  George Washington"

[The Bible] is the rock on which our Republic rests."   - Andrew Jackson"What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ."      - George Washington

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.     - Thomas Jefferson

"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."     - George Washington

Enough said. We'll see flags flying everywhere over this holiday weekend. I don't know who took this photo of the flag, but it's said to be un-retouched.

  

Looking at this photo lifts my heart. It seems a "curious coincidence" that the rays of the sun just happened to line up this way. . .

 

Since we seem to be in the middle of a long, hard trudge into who-knows-what, it's reassuring to remember again the timeless principles upon which this Nation was founded. The brave men who penned the Declaration of Independence were men who knew their Bibles. The principles they set down for this fledgling United States of America trace back to Bible verses like these:  

 

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.    - John 8:36

 

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. - II Corinthians 3:17

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.  - Psalm 33:12

On July 4th, as we celebrate the birthday of the USA, it's time to give thanks. Thanks for those courageous men of faith and vision who founded our nation. Thanks for the protection of Almighty God. From the beginning He has been gracious and merciful despite all the ways we depart from His ways.

 

One thing more. Let's humbly ask God to graciously watch over our troops and to preserve this nation. Like our Founding Fathers, I believe we cannot endure without His blessing.

 

With a grateful heart,

 

Lenore

 

 

 

Hope in the midst of cancer and meaning in the aftermath

Imagine being thirty-two years old and being told the sore on the back of your tongue is malignant. Surgery, to be performed at once, would involve removing most, if not all, of your tongue. Afterward, you might never be able to swallow on your own, nor speak intelligibly.

Hearing that would devastate anyone, but especially a pastor who spends his life speaking, preaching and teaching. Especially the doting father of a two-year old little girl.

Scott Schmieding, a Lutheran pastor then in Baton Rouge, LA, survived the eleven-hour surgery in 1995. Surgeons in Houston opened his neck from ear to ear and removed his tongue through his throat. Then they removed a muscle from his abdomen and reconstructed the cavity in his mouth. Intense radiation followed, which caused mouth blisters. For eight months he breathed through a hole in his neck and ate through a feeding tube. Radiation also eliminated Schmieding's sense of taste and ability to swallow. So he learned a new way to swallow--a quick toss of his head backwards, to move the food to the back of his throat, where gravity took over. 

From the moment of his diagnosis one question dogged him. If he lived, how would he talk without a tongue? How could he communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ? That passion drove him to doggedly persevere in speech therapy sessions. With the help of a special retainer which acts somewhat like a megaphone, he learned to pronounce consonants. To make the "T" sound, for example, he shoots air at his retainer.

Finally Scott Schmieding was ready to return to his life as a parish pastor, wondering always what would happen if parishioners couldn't understand his slightly impaired speech. His first Sunday back he baptized his newborn son, there in the Baton Rouge congregation which had loved and prayed for him and his family throughout their long ordeal.

Schmieding says he never asked God, "Why?" Rather, he prayed to understand the purpose of his ordeal. During the past thirteen years he arrived at an answer. Noting that he and his family also lived through five major hurricanes in Louisiana, he says, "I have become an expert at adversity. I know what people are feeling when they face trials and tragedy."

That's why Scott Schmieding has become a sought-after speaker. His message of hope and perseverance comes through loud and clear. In March, 2010, he became pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Charles, MO. Members soon found they didn't notice any speech irregularities because they were so caught up in their new pastor's joy in Jesus. 

When asked how he got through it, he points to the Apostle Paul, who faced his own set of daunting challenges. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul repeats the words of Christ to him:

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Scott Schmieding knows the truth of those words first-hand. He believes he reaches more people without a tongue than he would have if he'd never had cancer. That doesn't strike him as remarkable. "The history of the Bible is the story of God using imperfect people for his perfect purposes," he says. "I'm just one in a very long line of imperfect people being used by God."

I learned of Pastor Schmieding when our daughter in the St. Louis area clipped an article by Tim Townsend in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the basis for this blog post. I've never met him, but his story lifts my heart. I pray it will do the same for you. If you wonder how he sounds, here's a link to a short clip with sound: http://interact.stltoday.com/mds/projects/html/2428

(If you have trouble with the link, copy and paste it to your search engine.)

Each of us will draw our own lessons from this story of one man's life--and of course, his family's life, too. As I think about the miracle of his healing and the surgery that enables him to talk, it reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses, Jeremiah 32:27:

"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?"

God brought Scott Schmieding his long period of suffering and in the midst of it, gave him joy. Despite what looked like the worst kind of loss, he gained not only life through that surgery, but also a deeper understanding of what it feels like to be fearful and in pain. When he ministers to hurting people, they know he's been there and truly understands their emotions and their sometimes doubts.

This story says to me, Live. Live today. Live fully. Live in faith. Don't be too quick to label something "a disaster." Our lives are in God's hands and He often works through human hands.

What about you? What do you draw from this story? Maybe you have a story to share or are living out a hard time. If you tell the rest of us, we can pray for you.

Whatever you're facing, keep on trusting. God is faithful and He can be trusted.

His peace and blessings,

Lenore

 

 

 

Reason to celebrate!

In such a time as this, let us celebrate those who died--and those who live--to keep us the land of the free.

Let us not waste our freedom by forgetting the price tag.

May God continue to bless these United States of America! 

 

Seize the JOY in this day,

Lenore

 

 

Looking for happiness? Take a fresh look around

Isn't it easy to look at someone else's life and think they have it easy?

You've heard that old saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."

Here's what never gets said, "Yes, but you still have to mow it."

I confess. Early on, I spent a lot of time looking around at other people's lives and thinking, "If only ... ."

Maybe you're familiar with that swamp, the one filled with, "If only my life were easier. If only I were a better _____ ." Etc.

I could have filled in that blank with at least a dozen ways in which either my life or I could be "better." After awhile I got older and smarter and recognized the obvious. No one lives an "easy" life and no one is perfect. Every one of us deals with stresses and problems and difficulties in relationships.

Some people think daydreaming is harmless and costs nothing. Not true. While we have our heads in the clouds we miss out on the day and the life we actually inhabit.

It's good to stop and now and then and take stock. Try making a list of what's good in your life. Oh, and forget "perfect." Concentrate instead on what's "good."

I discovered it helped to pretend I was someone else, a reporter, perhaps. What would I write about the woman in the mirror and the life she lived? 

I used that list as a starting point for giving thanks to the Giver every day or so. By the time I worked my way through that list I'd be adding to it. 

You can guess what happened, can't you? That little exercise became a habit, a way of thinking about my life. Each time I read it and thanked God for these blessings, I felt more blessed.

Before long when I realized I was happy. I liked myself better, too.

Did anything change about my life? Nope. Only my perception. And that made all the difference.

Like so many others before me, I learned the truth of Proverbs 23:7, as translated in the King James or Revised Standard Version. Here it is, slightly paraphrased.

As a [woman] thinks in [her] heart, so is [she.]

So, dear reader, here's my challenge for you: Try it for yourself. Then share your findings with the rest of us by using the comments form below.

Blessings and joy,

Lenore

 

One week that changed the world forever

Today Christians celebrated Palm Sunday, the beginning of what we call Holy Week.

Why "holy?"

Because this week we especially ponder the fact that Jesus Christ, true God and true man, chose to give up his life for you and me.

Why give up his life?

Because we human beings cannot live a perfect life, perfect in thought, word and deed, which is the only way we could be right with God on our own.

You and I don't have a chance, except that Jesus paid for all our sin when
he willingly gave up his life and allowed himself to be nailed to that cross.

Do any of us think that One who walked on water and healed the paralyzed and brought the dead back to life was overpowered? That One who multiplied two loaves of bread and five small fish into enough food to feed 5,000, with food left over could be so weak and overwhelmed he had to  meekly stand there so those Roman soldiers could beat him and maul him? 

The Baby in the manger, the great teacher, the miracle worker, willingly submitted to this cruelty to set you and me right with God. He was nailed to that cross as punishment--and full payment--for our sins, not his.

That's why we call Good Friday, "good."

They took down Jesus Christ's body from the cross and laid it in the tomb just before sundown. It was the beginning of the Sabbath and his followers were forbidden to do more than wrap some cloths around his broken body. On the third day they went to the tomb and found no corpse. Only an angel who told them, "He is not here. He is risen."

In other words, Jesus did not stay dead. Oh, he appeared several times, speaking and interacting with his followers, but then he went back home, to his Father. No trace of his body, no bones, were ever found. Only the cloths in which they hastily wrapped his body before sundown on Friday.

That's what we will celebrate next Sunday, Easter Sunday.

One of Christ's disciples, John, put it this way, in John 3:16-17:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Next Sunday we celebrate Christ's victory, because it is our victory. Because he lives eternally, we too live eternally.

The price of admission to life, life now and life after we die, is faith in Jesus as our Savior. Nothing more, nothing less. That's all it takes to live in freedom from guilt and beating ourselves up because we're not "good enough."

That's what we Christians call, "grace."

God's Riches at Christ's Expense.

Your riches. My riches. Freedom from fear, both now and forever. Joy in the sure knowledge that God loves us and forgives every sin we ever committed, not just from today or yesterday, but any and every wrong we have ever done, at any time in our lives.

That's why this week, when we remember Jesus Christ's death, we also celebrate his life--and ours. Life abundant and free, ours for the taking.

Gentle reader, I wish you a week--and a life--in which you know that JOY and freedom in Christ for yourself!

Lenore

P.S.  You can read about the life of Jesus in the Bible. Begin with one of the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.)